Food for Thought with Colleen Patrick-Goudreau · Colleen Patrick-Goudreau

Vegan Japanese Cuisine (Part Two)

·1 hr 29 min·5 clips

Colleen reveals that Italy's original pizza was vegan, shifting the paradigm on authentic travel eating.

Eighteen years in, gratitude comes first. Colleen thanks longtime and new listeners, then slips her move toward Substack into the same warm, chatty thread as the food talk. The question stays simple. Can a vegan eat well in Japan? Her answer is yes, with caveats worth hearing. She talks about Japanese food as wider and more plant-friendly than many travelers expect, with traditional dishes already doing a lot of the work. Ramen becomes the main path through the episode. She does not treat it as just one familiar bowl. She looks back to Chinese characters tied to stretching and noodles, admits the origin story has some uncertainty, and follows the most likely route from Chinese wheat noodles into Japanese food culture. Adaptation is the fun part. Japan, as she tells it, keeps taking things from elsewhere and making them distinct: Buddhism, baseball, written characters, even toilets. Her Japanese toilet aside is funny, personal, and somehow still on topic. Then she brings it back to ramen, tofu, rice, and tea, where Chinese roots and Japanese tradition can both be true. The vegan advice stays grounded. Some ramen may have chicken or eggs, so travelers still need to ask and check. The reassurance holds, though. She is spending ninety minutes saying there is plenty to eat in Japan, much of it traditional, much of it vegan by default, and delicious. She ends by taking questions, mentioning future Japan travel plans, thanking listeners, and closing with the same compassion-forward spirit that has been guiding the whole answer.

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